Dedicated to Shawn Clark who turns 50 today. Special thanks to the late Billy Joe Shaver for the inspiration. Also, sincerest apologies to the late Billy Joe Shaver.

Shawn's 50th

A musical conversation that NEVER happened. Special thanks to my friends Beau and Jon David at COUNTRY SQUIRE RADIO for the support and forgiveness for my exploitation of their comments. If you're interested in learning more about the world of pipe tobacco or just a great all around listen on a new subject, please check them out at CountrySquireRadio.com or look them up on your favorite app for listening to podcasts.

Country Squire Radio host Beau approaches co-host Jon David about wanting to do something different that may or may not be well received by the CSR podcast audience. JD, bewildered yet trusting his friend and co-host, shows hesitation but still allows Beau to make his proposal. Excited yet apologetic, Beau announces that he wants to introduce a heavy metal element into the show. Immediately, JD is alarmed to the point of stuttering about the idea as he tries to voice his concern about polarizing their listeners. Beau questions JD's standpoint, which only serves to annoy him further. Having settled down and feeling resolved to squash the matter, JD gains further confidence in his argument while deep inside Beau may have stirred up something unexpected.

As the song quiets down, JD begins to rattle off all his gripes with heavy metal, and there are many. He ultimately admits his musical preferences lie in other genres, which prompt roaring laughter and disgust from Beau. To dodge the shame bullets, JD tries to play devil's advocate and make known his understanding of the merits the genre has like the variety and longevity of the genre... which he realizes he appreciates more than he thought. Having an inadvertent effect on his arguments, you hear the music change instantly the moment that JD unlocks a long compartmentalized part of his soul as he casually blurts out that actually his favorite kind of music indeed is metal to the instant joy and surprise of Beau.

The tone of the song has suddenly shifted to a triumphant one as JD considers this shocking revelation, again to the praise of Beau. With nothing left to hide anymore, JD cries out in a loud voice that he loves metal as the choir and guitars come in for perhaps one of the most cheesy and glorious heavy metal passages I've ever written. The song continues pounding forward at the simultaneous request of both CSR hosts leading to a joyous classic "Owwww!" from JD and some air guitar from Beau to begin the solo section. Things calm down a bit in time for JD to request that I "bust out some Swedish death metal". I gladly oblige him with a hellacious onslaught prompting his only response possible, "Holy smoking metal!" The song finishes up while JD, fully on board for metal, now finds himself making the case FOR it and completely at ease about the change. Beau with a firm pat on his own back, confidently agrees.

This ridiculous effort came from hours of mining their episode on tobacco pipes made of metal "Mind Over Metal: A History of the Metal Pipe". The self-imposed challenge to use ONLY audio from that particular episode to craft this fake conversation led to a lot of frustration, but ultimately I'm pleased with how it turned out. Thankfully they don't hate me, too!

Country Squire Radio Revelations

My over-the-top interpretation of the theme for the new Flash TV show.

Flash TV Theme

A lady at work has two little girls, Rubie and Amber, and they're the co-founders (and pretty much sole members) of my fan club. What fan club is complete without a gift to its members, so I made this song for them based off a melody with which I could never figure out anything to do. I told their mom, "It's kinda all over the place... but then so are they." She agreed.

Two Jewels

Special thanks to the guys at the Lanterns TV Talk Podcast for the inspiration and getting me writing music again! Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/lanternstvtalk. This song started as a short segment for use in a their podcast covering the upcoming show based on the Green Lantern; however, it very quickly evolved into something much bigger and more involved. 

We take/swear formal oaths when important whether for office, as a juror, of a Hippocratic nature, or as wedding vows. Similarly, we internally make personal pledges and commitments to protect our children, to keep our grades where we need them, to be there for our friends, or to faithfully serve and make a difference in our community or place of business. In all cases, we can grow weary or feel beat down in the process.
 
John McClane, Captain America, Chief Brody, Lieutenant Ripley, and a whole host of other movie characters went through pain, struggle, dark times, and hopeless moments. However, they would always remember their “oath” so to speak and find the courage they need to endure, get back up, and fulfill it, usually with the benefit of a climactic score behind them. Likewise, when we’re weary of our struggles, sometimes it takes us digging deep  to remember the reasons for which we’re enduring them. 

That’s what this song turned into. It’s cheesy, over orchestrated, and in general over the top, but I had fun putting it together. Perhaps, too, if you’re in need of a pseudo-cinematic moment to keep you going, this will check that box. Oh, and I’m also on a bit of a 70s/80s synthesizers kick! 

I arranged and programmed all the digital instruments in this song, but the guitar parts are the only ones I actually played.

Remember Your Oath

I started writing this song back after I had knee surgery for a torn meniscus. I was doing physical therapy at Mississippi Sports Medicine, and the PTs there were awesome! They always did what they could to push me without killing me and made me work harder than I intended, and I definitely couldn't have done it without their support and motivation. This song was partially kind of a pump me up song for my sessions, but it was more of a dedication to that staff. This one goes out to all the physical therapists out there who make us work a lot harder than we want to get better!

No Pain, No Gain

Among the few resolutions I plan to actually accomplish (and aside from those I surely won’t), I plan on wasting less down time in front of the TV and instead focusing on finishing some songs! I’ve got so many that are at least halfway finished (some even closer to 90%) on which I’ve just been sitting, and I have like 7 actual fans of my music that really should get to hear some new stuff. Therefore, I officially resolve in 2017 to finish… an undisclosed number of them. This sounds like a cop out; however, I’ve prepared this “teaser” allowing the public to help me stay accountable!!! Enjoy, and here’s to a musical 2017!

2017 Coming Tracks

My name is Charlie Bock. For 3 years, I was locked alone in my man cave with only one goal... complete my interpretation of the Arrow TV theme song...

As that whole bit is a tad overused, I'll continue by saying it's been a long journey since I started trying to follow up my take on the Flash TV theme with Arrow. It's a difficult song to work with compared to Flash as Flash had some awesome motifs to work around. The Arrow theme has... "bum bum bum bum bum bum BUM bum". Also, listening to the "full" composition of the theme song, the whole Arrow theme is basically (by design) one long build up. Plenty of little ideas to incorporate, but I had serious trouble trying to form a cohesive song versus just transposing the whole composition to guitars. 

After 3 years of sporadic work (and avoidance), I finally finished it thanks to the motivation from my friends at the Flash TV Talk Podcast (@FlashTVTalk). If not familiar with all the different parts of the the Arrow theme (like me before listening to it for my preparation to write/record this song), it may be hard to really recognize all the little details I threw in, but I still think it all fits into place well enough.

It's a dark and brooding song, which seems to fit the show. There is so much story the show hints at, so this song really had to tell a story, too. The beginning starts really slow, ominous, and thematic before breaking into the basic beginning of the theme song that more or less follows the song. The "bum bum..." rhythm (here on out referred to as the main rhythm to reduce the use of the word "bum") is so hard to make interesting since it's simply a string of equal length notes that repeat, so I had to modify the note pattern slightly to make it into a listenable moving riff when the heavy rhythm guitars come in. When they do come in, you should still be able to hear the inspiration from the original pattern of the main rhythm with a couple of hints that I snuck in right before it.

As the pace slows down, it starts to basically follow the original Arrow theme. It then changes to a really heavy take on the main rhythm with a few leads over increasing key changes to build up a lot of sense of conflict, of which the show is full. As this darker, escalating section builds up to a climax, I introduce an original piece of music to represent a sense of restoration/redemption. This section doesn't build off any of the theme song's existing motifs because I had to create the redemption the show never seems to give! It's so dark, haha!

The song ends by returning to the original straight pattern of the theme's main rhythm as it works better here towards the end of the song. The ending has a quick build up to the familiar high pitch screech that usually starts/ends the episode, but I bring it around full circle by bringing back the arpeggio pattern that began the song as the good ol' fashioned E power chords fade out. 

People seemed to like my take on the Flash theme, so hopefully they like this one. In my opinion it is less accessible than the Flash, but anyone into thematic music (especially heavy metal stuff) might understand this take on the Arrow theme better than those that don't. Again, I had to make some artistic changes, but hopefully it made the song more listenable. 

Successful, or should I have stayed on my hellish island? You be the judge.

Arrow TV Theme 2017

My friends at the Flash TV Talk podcast had a "rivalry" with another Flash podcast, and it even got to the point where they laughed off the concept of a truce. Not even pizza would settle this feud! This is their hymn to which they can march into battle as I promised I would make for them. The song contains a few clips of audio from their podcast (taken out of context, of course) to emphasize the tone of the song, to remind them of why they have to fight... and for comedic value.

I had to go back to my metal roots for this one from NWOBHM to European power metal, and it ended up being exactly what it needed to be. Granted, I finished it after they settled up (pizza always prevails), but hopefully this song will always remind them of the respect they deserve!

Battle Hymn for Flash TV Talk

You never know what you'll sort of adventures await at your local tobacconist. 

This song was inspired by my friend and owner of the Country Squire, Mississippi's oldest tobacconist located in our capital city. The introduction (taken from a recording of his and used grossly out of context) should "explain" the story, but you should definitely check out the full story from his podcast. Start at about 34:30 at this link: https://countrysquireradio.fireside.fm/225.

Please be sure to check out other episodes of Country Squire Radio, too, on your favorite podcast player!

Blaspheme the Pilgrims

Just a guy who likes playing rock/metal guitar and writing a song here and there. I write instrumental songs because I can't sing or write lyrics. Mostly, I'm a big melody guy, and guitar melodies transfer through me better than vocal ones. Joe Satriani is my biggest influence and favorite guitar player.

Charlie Bock

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